bril·liant /ˈbrɪlyənt/ [bril-yuhnt] –adjective 1. shining brightly; sparkling; glittering; lustrous: the brilliant lights of the city. 2. distinguished; illustrious: a brilliant performance by a young pianist. 3. having or showing great intelligence, talent, quality, etc.: a brilliant technician. 4. strong and clear in tone; vivid; bright: brilliant blues and greens; the brilliant sound of the trumpets. 5. splendid or magnificent: a brilliant social event.
It's about time I wrote my reviw of Easy A, which I went to see over a month ago. I have had internet problems, and then it seemed too late to write it, but then I just couldn't waste the blog title I had thought of in the cinema. Consider this an early review of the DVD release.
Easy A is in the long fine tradition of charming, witty American High School comedies. Self-aware and knowing without being tongue-in-cheek, Clueless and Mean Girls are the classics of the genre. I would add Glee to the list as a small-screen variation.
Starring Emma Stone (alumnus of that charming, witty American college comedy The House Bunny), Easy A is one of those rare treats - a Hollywood movie that doesn't talk down to it's young audience. There were jokes I laughed at alone. Fine. There were jokes that went right over my head. Fantastic. Just don't spell them out. And if you can make a serious point about sexual double standards at the same time as making me laugh, so much the better.
Yes, Easy A is the Scarlet Letter set in a high school. Everything changes, but some things never change. And look how much she looks like a young Lindsay Lohan!
Classic literature is a goldmine of teen movies. I'm hoping to see the vampire craze satirised in an updated Northanger Abbey some time soon.
Mean Girls 2 is due for release soon. Do yourself a favour and see it's spiritual sequel instead - Easy A.
Interior designer and celebrity Nicky Haslam has famously, over the years, declared many things to be ‘common’. So imagine my horror when I looked for a definitive list on the internet and couldn’t find one. I resolved to do some research and write the list myself.
First, we need to know Haslam’s definition of ‘common’. He once gave this answer in an interview: ‘It's nothing to do with some Nancy Mitford-esque horror of someone putting their knife on the plate. It's those little clichés that make you cringe, like someone saying: "My garden's got its own microclimate."’
And now for the list!:
• Saying "please" • Cufflinks • Anyone Scottish, • The Caribbean, • Tassled loafers • Celebrity chefs • Bottled water • The sun • Swans • Queuing outside Annabel’s • Organic food • Sushi • Saint Tropez • Champagne flutes • Christmas parties • Non-Russians with Russian girlfriends, • Film stars • Complaining about the smoking ban • Pronouncing the 't' in trait (it's a French word) • Pronouncing the 'e' in furore (it's also a French word) • Coloured bath towels, • Drinking cappuccinos after eleven • Art Deco • Scented candles, • Garlic on your breath, • Framed photographs of anyone non-Royal • Morocco • Not knowing the words of hymns • Fur coats on men • Three-quarter length trousers on anyone • Jet-lag • Wheat intolerance • Relaxing • Loving one's parents
"Hedwig and the Angry Inch" (John Cameron Mitchell, 2001)
After a disappointing live experience, I decided to watch the movie of Hedwig and the Angry Inch again. And just as I remembered, it has so much more heart and depth than the production I saw.
The meaning of Hedwig hinges on the song Origin of Love. As the young slip of a girly-boy Hansel, Hedwig was a philosophy student who developed his world view according to a speech from Plato’s Symposium by Aristophanes. The lyrics of the Origin of Love describe how, in the beginning we were all part of a two person being joined at the backs. The Gods became angry and split us in two, leaving us mourning for our literal ‘other half’. Our life is a quest to find our missing half- our soul mate- and become complete again. And this is how love came to be.
After I saw the play I had the nagging feeling that Hedwig, as both man and woman, was her own soul mate. But I couldn’t develop the idea further until I rewatched the film.
Throughout the film it’s suggested that Hedwig and Tommy Gnosis are in some way the same person and therefore each others’ soul mates. If all pairs of soul mates started out as one person it’s the same thing. For example, when Hedwig is stripped of drag at the end of the film he looks very similar to Tommy. There are other clues earlier in the film such as a mirror making their faces look like one.
It’s not just Plato’s creation myth which features in the film, the story of Adam and Eve is mused on by Tommy. In this story, one lover is created from the other as Hedwig makes Tommy Gnosis out of Tommy Speck. Tommy praises Eve for taking the apple, discovering knowledge and sharing it with the one she loves. He asks Hedwig to do the same for him and she does, she teaches him to be a rock star.
Hedwig believes that Tommy is his missing half, even after Tommy betrays her. At the end, Tommy sings to Hedwig, admitting that he has done her wrong and cares for her but also that we are alone in this world and there is no ‘missing half’ we are destined to be with.
Hedwig was torn apart not at the dawn of time but when she underwent her brutal ‘sex change operation’ maiming. This caused a split in her personality. Hansel Schmidt was naive and bookish. Hedwig Robinson is fierce, campy and over-confident. The song ‘Wig in a Box’ describes how we can manipulate our appearance to become someone else, literally making a mask out of make-up. Hedwig did not choose to live as a woman and keeping up the artifice clearly puts a strain on her sense of self.
In the finale Hedwig finally breaks down. He strips himself of his clothes, wipes off his make-up and accepts himself as himself, no longer pretending to be a woman. But because he has no phallus he is symbolically not a man either. He is part man, part woman, and he is whole. His tattoo of two ying-yanged faces morphs into one face, representing the resolution of his gender identity and the simultaneous realisation that there is no soul mate out there who can complete him. Plato’s creation myth is just a myth.
Hedwig and the Angry Inch. Just a camp, trashy musical? No way.
Review of Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Marlborough theatre, Brighton (Edinburgh preview).
Hedwig and the Angry Inch started as an off-Broadway play in 1998. It has since been revived many times, made into a film in 2001, and become a cult favourite. The show is presented under the pretext of a gig by East German transsexual Hedwig and her band the Angry Inch. Hedwig tells her life story with each song representing a different stage in her life. And she doesn’t hide her bitterness about the musical success of ex-boyfriend Tommy Gnosis, who we are told is also playing a gig tonight in the same city but in a massive arena.
In this production Hedwig is played by a woman, which works well with the queer genderfuck theme. However she can’t compare to the original Hedwig, John Cameron Mitchell. She doesn’t display the over-compensatory bravado and camp confidence that the character of Hedwig has. I suspect the actress is a singer without much acting experience and without a natural comic skill, she stumbles over her words on occasion and some of the jokes fall flat due to the delivery. She just doesn’t have the acting chops to carry off what is essentially a one man/woman show.
The songs were much better than the banter and story-telling in between. For a start, the score is superb. Songs like The Origin of Love and Wig in a Box can only ever be fantastic and the band and singers were all very talented. The cast made the best of the tiny stage they had to work with which was barely big enough for the band, and the use of the fire exit was inspired. But over all, this was just a mediocre production of an excellent play. Compared to the film this was a bit flat and didn’t induce the same emotional extremes.
I did have a good night out, but I can’t help but feel I would have enjoyed watching the film on DVD even more. That option would at least have meant I avoided the annoying ‘fans’ in the front row who for some reason decided to show their appreciation by repeatedly shouting things out and speaking over Hedwig. To her credit she shot them down like a pro, wasn’t flustered, and stayed in character while she was doing it. After the show an annoyed audience member spoke to these people, quite rightly pointing out that their behaviour had been out of order. Bizarrely, one of them replied “Well I’m sorry but.... [long pause while he tries to think of an excuse] clearly you’re old and don’t understand. And should be in bed.”
Best of luck to the team for their Edinburgh fringe run, starting next week.
I’ve chosen an outfit from the Chanel Couture Spring/Summer 2010 show at Paris Fashion Week. I love this futuristically feminine ensemble because it’s so unbelievably pretty and girly, but with a few high fashion twists. It’s a shimmery, lacy knee-length shift dress in a creamy, sugary pastel pink.
The dress is topped off with a tweed bolero jacket. In a Chanel show of waistless wonders the jacket creates an empire-line waist on the dress. As head designer Karl Lagerfeld has done in a few of the most recent shows, the classic Chanel suit jacket has been frayed around the edges. Here it has also been cut high, above the natural waist. This is typical of Lagerfeld’s latest work for the house – a modern twist on classic Chanel.
The hair on the model is a wonder in itself; it seems to reference celebrities through the ages - the elaborate pompadours of Marie Antoinette and Edwardian Gibson Girls. The dip in the middle of the hair brings to mind Lady Gaga’s hair bow. The overall effect appears to be influenced by Amy Winehouse’s beehive; who Lagerfeld dubbed a fashion icon in 2007. The hair is topped off with a fabric bow and camellia, the signature flower of Chanel.
The shiny, silver, Barbarella-esque tights set off the pink of the dress and jacket. This outfit is styled for an unusual but pleasing blend of 1960s science fiction character and regency era Jane Austen heroine. This makes for a very innovative look which hasn’t been seen before. Two such different looks could have just clashed, but they look harmonious and so fresh.
From the Winehouse meets Gaga hair to the silver lame heels, this is the perfect outfit for walking on the moon on the arm of a perfect gentleman.
It didn’t start well. Anthony and Stanford – who always hated each other – are getting married. Why? Because they’re both gay, and the producers of the movie wanted a lavish wedding scene. To be fair, despite the unfathomable storyline, the jokes in this part of the film are pretty snappy. And it has Liza Minnelli. But it’s downhill from here until the ending 141 excruciating minutes later. The overall impression is that one draft script was written, and was given the go ahead without any rewrites.
There were always designer labels in the TV series, but the point was that Carrie was a creative dresser who mixed it in with vintage and high street. Her iconic ‘Carrie’ necklace came from a market stall. This is what people (women) loved about Carrie. As recently as the first movie, a Vivienne Westwood dress symbolically ruined Carrie’s wedding and everything was OK in the end when she wore label-less vintage. But now, she only wears designer. And so do the other ‘girls’, even Miranda who ten years ago almost always wore mannish suits. Now Miranda loves floaty numbers and Spanx.
Speaking of Miranda, what would the Miranda we know do if she faced sexual discrimination at work? She’d file a fucking lawsuit, that’s what. But not Sex and the City 2’s Miranda. She just leaves her job.
Charlotte behaves similarly out of character. The woman who always wanted nothing more than children is now Gaby Solis. Who wears vintage Valentino when their daughter is painting right next to them? A character in a poorly written script, that’s who.
Carrie is an unbearable harridan straight out of a “Take my wife. No really” joke. Only Samantha bears more than a passing resemblance to herself in the TV series.
In one of the most talked about scenes, our girls realise that Middle Eastern women are ‘just like us!’ Why was it supposed to be surprising that some Muslim women wear designer outfits under their niqabs? It's no secret that there are a some very rich people in UAE, and that Muslim women only have to cover up around men they’re not related to, is it? ‘The girls’ then have to escape some outraged men by dressing in borrowed hijab robes, like something from the summer special of a 1970s sitcom. The tension in this finale comes from the possibility of missing their flight. Because if they miss this particular flight, they might have to fly coach. Seriously, the writers thought viewers would be swept up in this and not just be offended. What happened to the Carrie and Samantha of the TV series who travelled cross-country on a train with bedrooms the size of a tin-can? When Carrie hails a cab in the manner of Claudette Colbert in It Happened One Night, it just reminds you how awful this film is compared to that classic.
This film is like a satire of what the haters said Sex and City was. There was always love for shoes and clothes, but I always argued it wasn’t materialistic. As soon as ‘the girls’ touched down in Abu Dhabi I had to eat my words. Critics said that Sex and the City was watered-down feminism; I defended it. But then the girls sing “I am Woman” in a karaoke bar, in one the cheesiest scenes I have ever, ever witnessed and I had to concede – any feminism that’s left is watered down to homeopathic proportions. It was like the Loose Women christmas party.
As the credits rolled, I couldn’t help but wonder.... why did I sit through the whole thing?
It could be a lazy comparison to call Marina Britain’s Lady Gaga – talented, feisty females making wonky pop in fashion-forward attire, so what? But both “The Fame” and “The Family Jewels” heavily reference celebrity culture and display ambivalence about it. Both artists are keenly aware of the dark side of celebrity. It is a culture that is dangerous, pointless, and perhaps meaningless - as well as intriguing, irresistible and perhaps profound. While Gaga embraces on some tracks (“Just Dance”, “Boys, Boys, Boys”) the seeming vacuity of pop, Marina muses on her own desire for success and the sacrifice required (“Are you Satisfied?”, “Mowgli’s Road”, “Oh No!”), a considered version of every X Factor contestant’s blinkered determination to ‘follow their dreams’. In an industry, pop music, where success equals fame Marina is facing questions of what she should want.
When in “Hollywood” Marina sings that she’s “obsessed with the mess that’s America” she’s not just being satirical, she really means it. The line between criticism and celebration is hazy. Anyone can condemn L.A., a place with paparazzi that snap Britney being wheeled into an ambulance on her way to be committed (sectioned). It takes a sharper mind to write a song with a Warholian wonder at the hold this culture has on us. Lady Gaga goes further. For her there’s no shame in entertainment and celebrity. The pursuit of fame can go hand in hand with the pursuit of art. Pop culture is still culture. On songs like “Fashion” (‘I live to be model thin, dress me I’m your mannequin’) and “Dance in the Dark” (‘Silicone, saline, poison’) Gaga targets the fashion and beauty industries, but she doesn’t let her reservations dampen her love of fashion and beauty. In fact, they add to the experience. In her Bad Romance video she compares the music industry to forced prostitution, like a true third wave feminist her reaction is to pursue a career where she ‘prostitutes’ herself.
Marina has said that she wrote her next single (released 25th April), I Am Not a Robot, to chastise herself because her anxieties were hampering her ambitions. Knowing this, it seems like a ‘you’ve GOT to go out there and be a star’ ballad to inspire the courage to be true to oneself and try one’s best. But the lyrics are more complex than that. I personally interpret it as a love song from a woman to an emotionally-stunted macho boyfriend. He is not a robot; no need for a staid stiff upper lip, you don’t have to act like other men do, it’s ok to have emotions and opinions. Open up to me. A sentiment as beautiful and romantic as it is a critique of gender construction. One is reminded of Eva-Marie Saint’s feminine influence on Marlon Brando in On the Waterfront. Or even Blair Waldorf and Chuck Bass from Gossip Girl. The video, directed by Rankin, emphasises the theme of forgoing defences to face the world naked and alone. In a metaphorical version of Snog,Marry Avoid’s POD she appears in a variety of extreme body paint and make-up looks, as well as a natural Marina.
Marina’s “Girls” is a strange song for an artist influenced by feminism, with it’s almost misogynistic lyrics. The lyrics signify the first stirrings of realisation that something is wrong in the world of gender “I fall asleep when they speak of all the calories they eat”. First you decide that you don’t want to be like most girls “You stick to your yogurts I'll stick to my apple pie”. And then you turn your attention away from individuals and towards the expectations that they are conforming to, and you rebel against the feminine stereotype “Girls are not meant to fight dirty. Never look a day past thirty. Not gonna bend over and curtsy for you”. The Slits “Typical Girls” for the Closer Diets generation, in other words. What makes it more interesting is that one look at Marina suggests that she doesn’t routinely gorge on apple pie. She’s a beautiful, slim young woman who clearly cares about her appearance. The difference seems to be that she’s aware that other things are more important. Perhaps she also knows that nothing is less attractive than a woman who moans about her insecurities and counts calories out loud, and there’s nothing more glamorous than someone who looks sensational without apparently having to put in much effort. This is in contrast to the incredible shrinking Lady Gaga who revels in the pursuit of size zero, precisely because of how ridiculous it is. Thinking beyond the sentiment of “Girls” one hits a common problem encountered by feminists. Is the denigration of typical female interests just dismissing what is important to women? Are fashion, cosmetics and gossip actually meaningless? Is it better to be a typical man than a typical woman? This is the logic of the post-feminist embrace of the ‘girly’. Beyonce, for example, displays this resolution to the ambivalence women have about what being female means. But she does it without acknowledging the ambivalence, so that it perhaps appears to be unthinking, going with the flow of what is expected of women. Her sometimes gender-analytical and often fierce lyrics, along with her collaborations with Lady Gaga, suggest that she made a self-aware decision about her glamorous, sexy image. There are, of course, things more important than looking good, but appearances are important. For they are art.
Marina and the Diamonds’ Family Jewels is an album of post-adolescent angst and ambivalence. It’s for people who have stopped worrying about how to fit in, and who have started about worrying about where and if they want to fit in. It is for the overwhelmed, the overinspired, who analyse and consider too much. The Fame is both a more naive and more mature album. Multi-layered, it is neither shallow pop nor is it a deep cultural analysis. It is both, and seems comfortable being so.
Nodar decided he'd rather have a Darwin award than a gold medal. His sled got flipped turned upside down before the games had even started.
Plushenko was all "check my quad" and had a tantrum when he got silver in the figure skating behind no-quad Lysacek.
The French alpine skier Marion Rolland will be unable to compete for two years following this incident.
You've made the Olympics. This is the free skate. The medals are to be decided on this performance. I just hope your bootlace doesn't come undone! What the judges didn't realise is that Nobunari Oda's pratfall was deliberate, injecting some authenticity into his Chaplin inspired program.
I’m not suggesting that it is a woman’s fault if she gets rapes. But there are some sensible precautions we can all take:
1) Do not associate with strange men. It is common sense to assume that any man you don’t know could be a rapist. Do not be left alone with them. Do not visit their homes. What other reason could someone have for visiting another person’s home than sex? Do not lead Strange Men on by talking to them, looking at them, dancing with them, or hooking up with them.
2) Do not associate with men you know. Acquaintance rape is actually more common than stranger rape. Do not be left alone with male friends, relatives, and especially, boyfriends.
3) Do not walk alone at night. Do not take taxis either. Most taxis are driven by Strange Men who could be rapists. If you cannot find a woman to escort you, do not leave home after dark. This may be difficult during the winter months when it starts to get dark in the early afternoon but, really, you don’t want to risk getting raped do you?
4) Do not wear short skirts. You might think you’re wearing a pretty dress, but anything cut above the knee is actually an international sign that you are up for sex. With anyone, anytime, anywhere.
5) Do not look attractive. It is well know that women only exercise, diet, wear make-up and nice clothes, and brush their hair to make themselves sexually attractive to men. Ugly women do not get raped. Rape is what happens when a man is so overwhelmed by a woman’s allure that he cannot stop himself from violently assaulting her. It is a compliment, really!
6) Do not drink alcohol. It might sound like fun to go out with your friends and get drunk, but you leave yourself vulnerable to rape. If you must drink, treat all men who try to buy you a drink with suspicion. They could be rapists! Make sure you only get a little tipsy so that you retain the strength to fight off rapists.
If we can all just take some responsibility for our actions by following these rules, and think about what we are doing, we can protect ourselves.
Li Lo's trip to India to ivestigate child trafficking will be screened by the BBC soon. For now, we can see Lindsay give an insight into rape and forced prostitution in this preview.
35 seconds in. Ugly girls are so lucky, right Lindsay? They never get raped.
